The invention relates to a device for the guiding of workpieces which has at least one curved guideway. Apparatuses of the kind specified are used, for example, in installations in which forgings are heated and graphitised. In such installations the curved guideway is guided through a graphitising basin, so that the workpieces pass on their conveying path through the graphitising basin and are wetted with graphitising agent. Then they are guided through the adjoining rectilinear guideway in a rectilinear conveying movement through the heating devices following the graphitising basin.
In installations of the aforementioned kind the workpieces are as a rule driven by roller drives which are disposed in the inlet zone of the apparatus and seize the workpieces laterally. Each workpiece freshly supplied to the guideway is advanced by the roller drives and pushes forward the preceding workpieces disposed in the guideway. Alternatively, installations are known in which a number of drives is provided which are disposed at predetermined intervals laterally of the guideway, so that over their conveying path the workpieces receive a driving thrust several times.
A basic problem of using apparatuses of the kind specified equipped with curved guides in installations which convey the workpieces continuously is that it is difficult to empty the guideways automatically. They must be so emptied, for example, if the processing of a particular charge of workpieces has been completed or if malfunctions occur in the installation equipped with the guide apparatus. With curved guidways it is impossible to use ejectors such as are used on purely linear guideways for the ejection of workpieces still situated in the guide path. For this reason, with the apparatuses known in practice the curved guideway must be emptied manually, with consequent loss of time.